Carrie is a partner at Ramquist and Dowd, a thirty lawyer firm with offices in downtown Chicago. She’s been there only 18 months, has a heavy caseload, and already a partnership. The woman is obviously smart, so it’s not surprising that the Buckley’s come to her for help.

Aiding Carrie in her investigation of Jackson Memorial is Will Rolston, the firm’s newest partner. Carrie knows that even with Will’s help, the investigation is not going to be pretty. Jackson Memorial is determined to protect their image, and deflect the blame of Katherine’s rape onto someone not related to the hospital.

There’s quite a bit going on in this book. Besides the investigation of Katherine’s rape, Carrie has other cases that she is working on and a budding romance with Will. Lawyers tend to be working on multiple cases at a time, so while Carrie’s workload is realistic, I found the references to other cases interesting, but unnecessary.

Her romance with Will just did not appeal. There is no sense of real chemistry between the two. While Carrie daydreams almost from the onset, Will shows no active interest in her until half way through the book. There are no sparks, lingering glances, or sexual tension.

There are a lot of secondary characters, most of them employed at the law firm. There are secretaries, partners, paralegals, and a computer expert, most of whom we don’t get to know in depth. Add to this the doctors, nurses and patients at the hospital and the cast of characters is considerably long. Some of these folks could have been cut out entirely and it wouldn’t have detracted from the story.

It took me a long time to warm up to Carrie. She is determined, stubborn and so single-minded that I found it hard to like her. The only thing that kept me going early on in the book, was the fact that I could relate to her disgust involving the rape. She is determined to prove her case, which I suppose makes a good lawyer, but she also refuses to look at the bigger picture. When other suspects or motives are suggested, she immediately dismisses them. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to look into other possibilities before dismissing them out of hand? I would think a lawyer would want to be prepared to disprove a reasonable doubt scenario brought on by the defense.

While the first third of this novel was a little laborious, once I got to the halfway point, I found myself devouring every page. Kopp does a nice job of slowly building the suspense, and not rushing the sequence of events that lead to a climatic and satisfying finish. The plight of Katherine Buckley is what made Absent Witness a good read -- I can’t say the same for the romance and characters.

--Wendy Crutcher